MMA Fashion: Kinnikuman x Caol Uno + 10AC Line

I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a fashion nut. At the moment, my wallet’s too thin to indulge in my desires, but I still read and keep up on what’s going on in Japan. From Hypebeast via Honeyee (I always have to wait for Hypebeast to translate for me because I can’t seem to remember any of the three years of Japanese I studied), Caol Uno’s 10AC brand collaborates with Kinnikuman on a new line of t-shirts. Hypebeast also finally explains Kinnikuman to me, which I feel MMA blogs failed to do —

Respected MMA fighter Caol Uno finds himself in an offbeat collabo with Japanese manga character Kinnikuman. Kinnikuman itself began airing in 1979 (till 1987) and revolved around a parody of Ultraman. Essentially part-time wrestler Kinnikuman was a last resort superhero to come around when nobody else was available.

I honestly didn’t know that Kinnikuman was a superhero parody, which makes sense now that I’m thinking back on my years of watching Japanese animation and how much of it was self-referential and self-deprecating. It also makes his “real life” loss to Bob Sapp more excusable. And! They said “Respected MMA Fighter Caol Uno.” I love when non-MMA blogs mention MMA in a good light, it gives me confidence that our little site has a place in the world of fighting.